New ultra-sensitive GPS chip

There are a few new GPS receivers on the market with the spankin' new SiRFstarIII chipset. This new chip allows for fast time-to-first-fix (TTFF) and is sensitive to very low power signals -- so low, in fact, that some claim GPS reception indoors and even better reception under canopies and in dense urban areas. Some of the new receivers on the market that include the Garmin GPSMap 60Cx and the Bluetooth Globalsat BT-338.

MapRoom - a multi-user spatial data management tool

Hey all. So Brent and I have continued thinking about this whole spatial data management system we've all been discussing. Here are two mock-ups of what we think such a site might look lile. These are, of course, super rough right now, lacking some features and design considerations our first draft will have, but we'd love to get people's comments and thoughts from the get go. Main Page First page you see, with a simple search bar and a Google map to limit your search spatially. You'll be searching on tags and metadata we derive from the files initially, maybe other sources of metadata later. The Categories tab will be an alternate, categorical view of the data, based on hierarchical categories like data type, source, theme, etc.

Dataset View This is the view of a single piece of data, or file. Shows all the metadata, tags organized by popularity (or most searched on?), and big bright download button. Oh and imagine an "Add a tag" text box there beneath the tags. WMS/WFS/WCS functionality is sort of something we might like later on down the road, but not immediately.

The upload view will look very similar. Either you're remote user and you upload a file or you're an admin and you tell the application that you've put some data you'd like to add in a designated holding directory. The app will read the file, try to figure out as much of the metadata as possible, and then the uploader will have to fill in the required fields that the app can't figure out. It'll look a lot like the dataset view, except those fields will be editable.

Ask.com Maps

http://maps.ask.com/ it's javascript based, there's some cool stuff. no api, but it seems to be somewhat hackable. you can geocode by right-clicking. much slower than google or yahoo.

Center of the (Google) Universe

Wired is running an article on the "center of the universe" according to Google. The upshot behind the whole article is that Google Maps starts out at a point near the center of the United States. If you don't change the extents and zoom in fully, you end up in Coffeyville, KS. Coffeyville is neither the geodetic center of North America or the lower 48, so the choice is somewhat odd. Not terribly useful, but a neat intersection of geospatial stuff and culture.

Drink with a scientist

Just read this cool article in the NYTimes about science cafes, where scientists talk about their work over beer with, well, anyone. The trend started in Europe, apparently, but there are no events like this in New York, Denver, and San Francisco. I think this sounds like a great way to expose and integrate science in society, although I'd like to see how well it works in real life. Anyone know of a local one here in Berkeley? Anyone want to check out the SF one with me on March 15th (ants!)?

NextMap is in the house

We've got the first quad of NextMap Radar imagery up in the GIIF. It is a new high resolution (1-4m) Radar product for Digital surface models and Digital Terrain Models. This will be most interesting to you all involved in Blodgett Forest; we could only get 2 quads to start, so we chose the quads covering the Blodgett Property. But it should be of interest to anyone wanting better res DEMs of California that are cheaper than LiDAR. Accuracy pending of course! See Eric and Abe's site.

Any Takers?

Hi all, I was curious if I could get a show of hands (or a reply post would do nice) for all those interested in using instant messaging. Go ahead and post how you think we might benefit from using some type of shared protocol. I personally do not feel it's neccessary to have to email someone (or search calnet's LDAP directory for a phone number) everytime I'd like to know if someone is in their office. Nature has become an emessage server; storing/transmitting not just email. In addtion, most people IMAP to their nature accounts, leaving a surplus of messages on the Nature server. My suggestion for those interested would be to get gmail accounts (many of us already do) and use Google Talk. Google Talk uses an open, xml standard known as Jabber/XMPP, which unlike AOL and MSN is decentralized (probably more secure and extensible to boot). Google Talk also uses VoIP, which translates to "make long distance calls via the internet". And of course, you can configure iChat (Mac users) or GAIM (Linux freaks) to connect to the Google Talk network, so no one should feel left out. abe h: mariahoney@gmail.com

W. Bowen Panoramics

We have to give a shout out to William Bowen's Panoramic Images. They are just stunning, and he keeps adding to the collection. Check them out.

Open Source Geospatial Foundation

Remember a little while ago when Mapserver and AutoDesk's MapGuide congealed into the Mapserver Foundation? Well now there's an even bigger umbrella group called the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, including not only Mapserver and MapGuide, but GRASS, GDAL, and OSSIM. Other big open source projects like PostGIS and QGIS don't seem to have joined yet, but maybe later. Hopefully this will bring about better consistency and interoperability across the world of open source GIS software. You can read about this at Directions Magazine

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WAAS on the MOVE

WAAS, that set of wonderful satellites that greatly improves our GPS accuracy, will be experiencing some changes. For the next two months (until the beginning of April 2006), the company that owns one of the WAAS satellites will be moving it westward. From the article:

WANDERING WAAS: SATELLITE TO RELOCATE One of the geostationary satellites carrying the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) signal won't be so stationary during the next 60 days. Satellite owner Inmarsat will be repositioning and re-aiming a satellite, shifting coverage to the west. The move will have no effect on the vast majority of GPS users. That's because most pilots use just the basic GPS signal, provided by the U.S. military. "But there may be times during the next two months when WAAS won't be available for precision vertical guidance," said Randy Kenagy, AOPA director of advanced technology. "That means you should check notams to make sure that LPV (lateral precision with vertical guidance) approach will be available when you want it." See AOPA Online.

Basically, this means that the vertical accuracy may not be stellar for the next two months. After that, my guess is we'll have better WAAS coverage here in the Wild Wild West (but that's just my speculation).